1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to signal comparators.
2. Description of the Related Art
Signal comparators generally compare the magnitude of an input signal to a reference signal (which may simply be a ground level) and produce an output that indicates the input signal's relationship to the reference signal. This function is an important part of signal conditioning systems. In most analog-to-digital converters, for example, comparison is necessary to initiate the process of quantizing an unknown analog signal.
Modern signal conditioning systems demand a high degree of processing accuracy but it has often been found that the comparators of these systems do not always maintain this accuracy over variations in the systems' total environment (e.g., variations in fabrication process, in operational temperature and in operational supply voltage).